Rampage pencil in Markstrom as cornerstone

Rampage's new parent team, Florida, touts top farm system.

Published 11:48 pm, Thursday, August 25, 2011

New Rampage coach Chuck Weber said he always considered Jacob Markstrom to be a special talent, a notion that the 21-year-old goaltender reinforced during exit interviews last season.

“Most guys when you ask them what their goals are, they say they want to play in the NHL,” Weber said. “But Jacob's response was, ‘I want to be the best goalie in the world.' It was refreshing. You usually don't get a lot of guys aspiring to do that at such a young age.”

Markstrom is just one of the key players the Rampage will be counting on when the regular season opens Oct. 8 at the AT&T Center against the Chicago Wolves.

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Markstrom was part of the reason the Florida Panthers, the new parent club of the Rampage, were ranked No. 1 in ESPN's 2011 NHL Organizational Rankings based on depth of talent and the number of top prospects in their system.

“The Panthers have the most blue-chippers coming down the pipeline,” the report stated. “All the Panthers need now is time to let their top prospects develop.”

Weber, who is in town preparing for the season, said many of them could be doing so in San Antonio with the Rampage over the next few years.

Markstrom is one who figures to land here sooner rather than later.

Weber said the Panthers want the team's second-round pick in the 2008 draft (31st overall) to “come down here and play a lot of games, be the No. 1 guy and carry the load.”

Markstrom led Sweden to silver and bronze medals in the World Junior Championships in 2009 and 2010, respectively. He played last year for Weber in Rochester but was injured during the second half of the season.

Weber said the Panthers “expect him to be a starting NHL goalie, a franchise-type player.”

Competition at other positions figures to be fierce, the coach said, particularly on the back line.

He said 16 defensemen are under contract, with nine of those likely to be fighting for spots on the Rampage roster. They include Nolan Yonkman, who played for the Rampage last season; Tyson Strachan, who played in Peoria and St. Louis a year ago; and Roman Derlyuk of Russia, who played in the KHL the past three seasons.

Weber is 208-131-29 in five seasons as a head coach.

He spent the first four of those with Cincinnati of the ECHL, where he led the Cyclones to two league championships and won at least two playoff rounds the other years.